Among the plethora of devices that Lenovo is showing off at the ongoing Consumer Electronic Show is a smartphone that owes its allegiance to one of the most iconic business laptop brands the world has ever seen. It is the ThinkPad that is being referred to here and Lenovo has taken the wraps off of what it calls the ThinkPhone this time.
Unfortunately, if that is evoking visions of a tough looking smartphone that means business just as its illustrious ThinkPad series does, you are in for a shock. Sure, there is the woven kevlar finish at the rear as well as the ThinkPhone logo complete with that famous red dot over the letter ‘i’. Then there also is the Red Key button on the side that can be customized to perform a function of your choice, like launching an app or something else.
All of these notwithstanding, the new Lenovo ThinkPhone fails to recreate the aura that is associated with the ThinkPad series. And perhaps to play it safe the Chinese company is also referring to it as the ‘Lenovo ThinkPhone by Motorola’, which sure seems befitting considering that it seems inspired more by Motorola than the legendary ThinkPad series.
Even the specs aren’t anything too inspiring either.
Lenovo revealed the upcoming ThinkPhone would feature a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor under the hood, which is a huge let-down considering that the phone was primarily aimed at the business community and is hence supposed to come with top notch specs. Further most 2023 flagships are set to come with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset.
Nonetheless, the ThinkPhone would have two memory options – 8 GB and 12 GB. Storage options include 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB of the UFS 3.1 type. For display, there is the 6.6-inch OLED panel having 60 Hz refresh rate though maybe a 90 Hz refresh rate would have been a nice balance between battery longevity on one hand and viewing pleasure on the other. Also, while still on battery power, there is going to be a 5000 mAh unit that the phone will come with and is backed by 68 W and 15 W wired and wireless charging respectively.
The ThinkPhone will also have a triple camera setup at the rear. That comprises of a 50 MP primary sensor, a 13 MP ultra-wide sensor, and a depth sensor of unknown resolution. For selfies and video chats, there is going to be the 32 MP front shooter as well.
Other features include an under-screen fingerprint sensor, an IP68 rating for water resistance, and support for faster and stable Wi-Fi 6E wireless connectivity.
Now, smartphones with the sort of specs mentioned above is a dime a dozen already.
There are no means to add additional hardware to the phone or it does not come with a dock that enhances its functionality, like providing extra ports, and such. Similarly, there aren’t any software features either that can make it stand out from the rest. On the whole, the ThinkPhone does not seem as exciting as its name might make you believe it is.
Nonetheless, Lenovo said the ThinkPhone By Motorola will be launching in the US, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Australia along with a few other Asian countries in the coming months. The company though isn’t revealing the price yet.
